


Thine is the Kingdom, and the Power, and the Glory

by Anonymous



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types
Genre: A more nuanced view of Hutts, Alternate Universe - No Slavery on Tatooine, Gen, Religious Imagery & Symbolism, because Anakin ...doesn't redeem the galaxy, but this isn't exactly that story, except in a very detached sense and then only through Luke, parallel character developments, tbqh at some level this is a reflection on Mary but it also isn't
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-04-13
Updated: 2018-03-16
Packaged: 2019-03-31 22:55:12
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 663
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13985067
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/
Summary: What does it mean that Shmi's son will bring balance to the Force?





	Thine is the Kingdom, and the Power, and the Glory

**Author's Note:**

> _"and I wear it for the thousands who have died, believing that the Lord was on their side/I wear it for another hundred thousand who have died, believing that we all were on their side."_ "I Walk the Line", Johnny Cash

There are no real seasons on the desert world of Tatooine. There are a few scattered areas where enough rain or dew falls that plants blossom profusely, briefly, and small lizards or insects survive there, but mostly it is a desiccated waste baked under the heat of twin suns. It's not a planet most people would like to visit, let alone call home.

Except...the little dirt ball lucked out bizarrely on one aspect of a cosmic raffle. There are a few Hutts who don't mind the heat so much, even though it makes them slow, because for the persistent and heat-tolerant, there are regions in the desert where rare minerals can be had for the effort of collecting and refining sand. It was also a reasonably good place to build a glass factory, with the abundant sand, but that wasn't currently running because the investor was in financial trouble elsewhere.

* * *

Shmi Skywalker wasn't born on Tatooine. She and her parents were traveling back from a distant relative's funeral when their shuttle ship, also carrying a more valuable cargo of droid parts, was attacked by pirates and its passengers abandoned in the Jundland Waste with only their clothing, the contents of their pockets, and a single barrel of water. Then again, she was only three at the time, and she adapted more easily to the new life than her parents. They had been far from rich, but they had been left even poorer.

A century ago, slavery still existed on Tatooine, although there wasn't much point to it. The Tuskens, the Jawas, and a scattered handful of moisture farmers were all that remained on the dustball. Then, after they had gotten rid of slavery, the sand had been studied, and two of the Hutts had come.

It wasn't then legal to buy sentient beings, but it was plainly legal to buy their labor and Gardulla had settled on the gray territory of temporarily renting their services. Shmi's parents died not long after that, from some unusual illness, and the Hutt decided to keep Shmi around for the time being. However, among the limited community growing around the sand mining facilities, it was considered bad luck to retain a familial name when you were its sole survivor on planetary soil. It was thus that she was named Skywalker. 

Gardulla liked her, and did not allow her to work out in the sand mine.

* * *

Ask, and you shall receive, it is said.

Let us have balance, the Jedi said. It is not precisely a bad time for them--they have a firm position supporting the Senate and enforcing order in the galaxy, but there are cracks. Little issues that crop up and can never all be fixed at once. Furthermore, there are those among them who wonder if the Order has never come to its culmination. Are they in a golden age which they simply can't see? Or is there something brighter and better that might come along?

...

Naboo is another planet with a nice draw in the cosmic lottery. It has plasma reserves many beings are interested in. But it is also soaked in water--lakes, oceans--and teaming with lifeforms.

Sheev Palpatine is relatively well known as a native of the planet, but it is not a place he can be entirely, easily, unequivocally fond of. A pleasant landscape doesn't, necessarily, mean pleasant people. And it was here he was once legally bound until, (it was intended) he turned 21, to the man who (unfortunately) happened to have fathered him.

He is, for now privately, an enemy of the Jedi. But he and his mentor also ask for balance. For fate and the Force to turn to their side, for the ancient and titanic rotten oak that is the Jedi's Republic to be split open and shown for what it is.

* * *

Shmi Skywalker _does not ask_ to have a son, nor any child at all, and does nothing to warrant such an occurrence.


End file.
